About 200,000 customers will have to pay more every month to help cover the costs of the city's massive storm sewer remodeling program.

KMBC 9's Micheal Mahoney said the process of cleaning Missouri River water so that it's safe to drink means pulling clay and silt from the water, adding lime to clean it, chlorine to disinfect it and carbon dioxide to reduce its acidity.

Water plant manager Mike Klender said the complex process takes about a day and a half. He said it results in something that's better than bottled water.

"But there are people who will identify that there are impurities in some of the water that they do not want and that's fine," he said.

The cleaning tanks are huge, capable of holding 5 million gallons of water at once.

Kansas City and the 33 communities that buy the city's water have been seeing a set of steady rate increases to pay for the stormwater and sewer improvements that were ordered by the courts. Those improvements will take at least several more years of work and even higher rates.

"Water rates will likely continue to rise," said Jennifer Kincaid of the Kansas City Water Department. "That's just part of operating and maintaining our system."